Minecraft Potion Brewing Guide: Five Useful Recipes

For these five Minecraft potions, start with water bottles, brew nether wart to make Awkward Potions, then add the effect ingredient. Invisibility needs one additional stage: convert Night Vision with a fermented spider eye. Java and Bedrock use the same brewing-stand recipes below.

Recipe table

Want every brewable Survival recipe on one page? Download the Minecraft Potion Brewing Chart as a high-resolution image or printable PDF.

These are drinkable potion durations. Follow an individual guide for the complete recipe and its limitations.

Ingredients and equipment

Craft a brewing stand with a blaze rod above three cobblestone blocks. Craft three glass bottles from three glass blocks arranged in a V, then fill them with water. You will also need blaze powder for fuel and nether wart for the base.

Nether fortresses are a source of blaze rods and nether wart. Keep some wart to grow on soul sand at home, and keep a spare rod before crafting powder so you can make the stand. Effect ingredients are listed in the table; each individual guide explains how to obtain or craft them.

Step-by-step brewing

1. Put up to three water bottles in the bottom slots.
2. Put blaze powder in the left fuel slot. One powder fuels 20 brewing operations; a full three-bottle batch uses the same charge as a one-bottle batch.
3. Put nether wart in the top ingredient slot and wait for Awkward Potions.
4. Add the effect ingredient shown in the table. Each stage takes about 20 seconds. For Invisibility, brew the golden carrot first and the fermented spider eye second.
5. Read the bottle name, then add an optional modifier to the finished potions.

All three bottles share the top ingredient. Brewing a full batch saves ingredients, but leave a slot empty if you do not need the extra bottles.

Duration and upgrades

Redstone extends each of these normal potions from three to eight minutes. Glowstone increases Strength to level II while shortening it to 90 seconds. It does not upgrade the other four effects. Longer and stronger are separate choices: an eight-minute Strength II potion is not available through normal brewing.

Gunpowder turns a potion into a throwable splash potion. Dragon’s breath turns a splash potion into a lingering potion that leaves a cloud. Change the effect or duration before converting the bottle when following these beginner recipes.

Java and Bedrock notes

The table shows drinkable times for both editions. Splash potions are less predictable: impact distance affects the received duration. Check the bottle tooltip in your edition, and do not use this drinkable table as a splash or lingering timer chart.

Bedrock has additional potion interactions with cauldrons; Java does not use those as a replacement for the brewing stand. Strength damage also differs between editions even though the recipe and duration match.

Common mistakes

• The stand does nothing: check both the fuel gauge and the top ingredient. Blaze powder in the ingredient slot cannot substitute for fuel.
• Wrong bottle name: adding an effect ingredient directly to water commonly makes an unhelpful base. Start these recipes with nether wart.
• The wrong modifier: redstone and glowstone have different jobs. Decide whether you want time or Strength II before brewing the upgrade.
• Expecting effects to combine in one bottle: Invisibility converts Night Vision; it does not keep both. Carry separate potions for separate effects.

Choose a batch for your trip

For an ocean build, pair Water Breathing with Night Vision and mark a route back to air. For Nether travel, keep Fire Resistance within reach and carry blocks for an escape route. For melee combat, choose long Strength for sustained exploring or Strength II for a short encounter. Invisibility is useful for a friendly hiding game, but visible equipment and mob detection limit it.

Store finished potions by their displayed name and duration. That makes it easier to find the right bottle before a trip and prevents confusing an extended potion with a shorter upgraded one.

Mojang’s Ten Rare Recipes explains the Awkward Potion base and effect ingredients. Its splash potion guide covers gunpowder conversion and throwing. Microsoft’s potion reference lists the normal, long and enhanced Bedrock variants.

Explore more Minecraft guides and videos, including the Chaos Cubed guides.